Culture

Welcome to ELLECanada.com's official TIFF journal! This festival, Laura deCarufel and Jennifer Lee, the co-editors of Hardly Magazine have the high honour of reporting live from TIFF'S coolest events. Stay tuned for party coverage and behind-the-scenes scoop!By Jennifer Lee The beginning of week two of the festival is coloured by a groggy fuzz. Our feet are sore from unkind but pretty party shoes, and our thoughts covet sleep when a seat at press screenings should be top of the wish list. But most concerning of all is the creeping grasp of the flu that is becoming harder and harder to shake in my sleep deprived state. No matter. Top of the agenda today is an interview with actor
Michael Sheen of
Beautiful Boy, co-starring
Maria Bello. And unless I can find an Etch A Sketch in the gift store of the Intercontinental before the interview, I’m going to need to a healthy set of vocal chords.
A dozen or so sniffs of Aveda’s magical Blue Oil and two packets of Emergency C later, I’m no longer distressed by the fact that I seem to be losing my voice; a voice that at full strength is at best a .8 on the Richter scale. I refuse to allow myself to believe I am getting sick. I make a pit stop in the
Tastemakers Lounge and have my nails painted in a brick red at the
Joe Fresh nail bar (helmed by the pros from Ten Spot) in an act of defiance. Fact: people suffering from the flu don’t have perfectly polished nails. [caption id="attachment_1996" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Tastemakers Lounge"]
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Michael Sheen arrives, dressed in a slim fitting light tan suit, layered over a v-neck T. He looks different than on screen, the cut of the suit, coiffed bed head and the impish smile makes it difficult to imagine him as Tony Blair, the reprised role that earned him a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He introduces himself, I do the same, immediately he apologies, putting his hand up to his mouth, “I’m sorry, do we have to whisper in this area?” Flu 1. Jenn 0. Opening with barefaced tragedy, first time director
Shawn Ku’s
Beautiful Boy begins with broadcast coverage of a shooting in an American college, folding into the story of two parents coping with the harrowing news of not only their son’s death in the shooting, but also his sole responsibility for the deaths of his peers and himself. Perspective is scrutinized under the scope of human fragility when the parents played by Sheen and Bello, are pushed out of their social sphere as a consequence of the swell of prejudice, presumption and fear that encircles their life once the press reveals the identity of the shooter. Ku is quick to note that this film is not a commentary on black and white news coverage that colours and omits as necessary to distinguish between victim and villain, instead the story begs reflection of all of us. “I don’t think it’s just the media,
we feel the need to separate that ‘evil’ from us,” he affirms. [caption id="attachment_1997" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Beautiful Boy directed by Shawn Ku. Starring Michael Sheen (R) and Maria Bello (L) "]
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